You know you miss the 90s

March 7, 2013

Jenee Johnson
Opinions Editor

At least once in our lives, most of us said that we miss the 90s. The 90s was the best decade, mainly because most of us, if not all, were born in the 90s. Whether it was 90s television shows, basic math or the awesome fashion, we miss it because it was what we grew up with. This article is dedicated to the 90s, and will hopefully take you down memory lane.
Let’s start with television shows. I don’t know about you, but I feel like the best shows ever were on Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Toon Disney and Cartoon Network. Most of the shows now on these channels do not make any sense. No kid should grow up without shows like “Rugrats,” “Hey Arnold” and “Pokemon.” Let’s not forget “Are You Afraid of the Dark,” “All That,” “Kenan & Kel” and “Power Rangers.” Shows like these taught you life lessons and most of us related to the situations in them.
You can probably hear the beginning of the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” theme song and finish it! At one point in time, you wanted to be a contestant on “Legends of the Hidden Temple” or have your family on “Double Dare.” There was probably a time where all of us probably liked orange soda because of Kel, and Are You Afraid of the Dark was the scariest thing we watched because we thought those episodes could happen in real life.
Before there was iPods, you had a CD player or a boombox to play your favorite music. And all 90s kids can remember hits from N’Sync, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, Destiny’s Child, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and many others. There is not a moment where you hear “Bye Bye Bye” or “Wannabe” that you don’t break out singing and trying to imitate the dance moves. I wouldn’t even be surprised if you all were singing these songs in your head as you read this.
Now on to something that most of you won’t like but that’s important to appreciate: elementary school. You might be thinking that you hated elementary school because of the stress or the embarrassing moments that you had to endure, such as toilet paper on your shoe or being tripped in the hallway by a friend. Okay, maybe some of you might still have this happen to you, but there are things that we should appreciate in addition to basic math and naptime. Before you left elementary school, math was only addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. There were no letters mixed in with the math. And when was the last time you were allowed to nap? Now you can’t put your head down or you will lose participation points. But in elementary school, naptime was your participation. That was when times were simple.
The 90s was a time when Tamagotchi, VHS tapes, Game Boy, Sock Em Boppers, 3D Doritos and Dunkaroos were awesome. Playing Super Mario on Super Nintendo or Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega and sitting at home on a Saturday mornings watching your favorite cartoons used to be a regular pastime for us.
Although, the real world makes it seem like we have to grow up, we really don’t have to. You can be a kid as long as you remember the awesomeness that was the 90s. Never forget the 90s. Never forget your childhood. We grew up with some great things and it’s disheartening that these are not what kids today get to grow up with. However, remembering and keeping that nostalgia is always good and the 90s will always be in our hearts.